White-throated Treecreeper Cormobates leucophaea Scientific name definitions

14–16·5 cm; 17 g (minor) to 22 g (nominate). Male nominate race is dark brown above, with thin whitish loral streak, fine grey scaling on forehead, thin whitish broken eyering; contrasting grey rump and tail, latter with black subterminal band; wing with broad contrasting rufous-buff bar across bases of remiges; throat white, merging into yellowish-white on central lower breast and belly; breast side and flanks grey-brown with bold, black-fringed cream-white streaks, undertail-coverts creamy-white with broken black bars; iris dark brown; bill black to grey-black, usually with pale grey or cream basal half of lower mandible; legs dark grey to black. Female differs from male in having rusty-orange spot on cheek. Juvenile differs in having blackish-edged dull white shaft streaks on scapulars, often fine grey scaling on upper breast, strong cinnamon-brown wash on undertail-coverts and sometimes abdomen, also yellowish cutting edge and base of lower mandible, cream gape, dark olive-brown legs and feet (with soles and rear of tibiotarsal joint yellow); in addition, young female has rump and uppertail-coverts orange-chestnut. Races vary mainly in plumage and in size: minor is smaller and darker than others, with little contrast between back and olive-grey rump and tail, greyish-white of throat merging with olive-grey breastband, creamy-buff belly heavily mottled olive-brown and dark grey; intermedia is intermediate in size and coloration between previous and nominate; <em>metastasis</em> is slightly smaller than nominate, both sexes like nominate male but breast brownish-grey; grisescens is largest and paler below than nominate.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Adult and larval insects , mainly ants (Formicidae); also spiders (Araneae); occasionally sap from acacias or eucalypts, and rarely nectar. Of 4446 items in stomachs of specimens from NE New South Wales, ants accounted for 92% (49% of biomass) and beetles (Coleoptera) 3% (32% of biomass), remainder mainly bugs (Hemiptera), flies (Diptera), wasps (Hymenoptera), moths (Lepidoptera) and spiders, with smaller numbers of cockroaches (Blattodea), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), lacewings (Neuroptera), termites (Isoptera) and pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones); ants included six genera, and beetles ten families. Items identified by direct observations at two sites (respective totals of 47 and 26) included spiders (7–20%), insect larvae (32–65%) and adult beetles (0–32%). Forages on bark of trees and shrubs, as well as logs, but rarely on ground; foraging heights depend on heights of available vegetation, mostly on tree trunks (up to 88% in five studies) and branches, as well as twigs (usually less than 4%); males foraged at higher level than females in two studies (in NE & SE New South Wales). In dry sclerophyll forest, prefers rough-barked eucalypts such as stringybarks (45–72% of observations at three sites in NE New South Wales) and ironbarks (36% where present), spending less time on eucalypts with predominantly smooth bark; at one site, females spent more time in stringybarks and less time on dead branches than males, but no such differences found at other study sites. Foraging technique mostly gleaning (up to 82% of observations), but also probing (up to 18%), and hammering and pulling bark (up to 4%); occasionally sallies for aerial insects and probes in flowers.

Typical territorial call (both sexes) a series of penetrating piping notes, repeated rapidly, then slowing and falling slightly, continuing for up to 5 minutes; notes also given singly for contact. Male also gives repeated series of up to 10 upward-inflected notes with slight crescendo, and rippling mellow trill. Female occasionally gives succession of descending and slowing notes; during incubation period, soft notes (like Morse code). Juvenile has distinctive soft trill.

Season Aug/Sept–Dec/Jan; normally single-brooded. Socially monogamous, normally breeding as pair; individual (of either sex) occasionally maintains pair-bonds simultaneously with two of opposite sex. Nest built by female alone, taking 7–15 days, cup-shaped structure composed of bark fibres, grass and moss, lined with finer bark, fur and feathers, placed inside tree hollow, with entrance through hole in trunk , or crack in side of limb or end of broken limb (often dead one), sometimes in nestbox; of 67 nest-sites over entire range, 40% in trunk or stump, 36% in branch or broken limb (“spout”) and 24% in nestbox, and of 44 nests in NE New South Wales 70% in trunk and 30% in branch; height of 83 nests over whole range 1–25 m (mean 7 m), and of 25 nests in NE New South Wales 4–13 m (mean 5·5 m); in one study six of 20 nests were used in two consecutive seasons, and in another study only four of 73 sites were used twice; territory 2–12 ha, varying with habitat quality, in C New South Wales (22 pairs) 3–7 ha (mean 6 ha), in NE New South Wales means at two sites 3·9 ha and 5·8 ha (nine and five pairs, respectively). Clutch 2–3 eggs, rarely 4 (mean of 20 clutches over entire range 2·45), dull white with a few rounded spots and dots of dark reddish-brown to purplish-black, mainly at larger end; laying starts c. 10–20 days after nest completed, eggs laid on alternate days (probably at intervals of 40–48 hours); incubation from last or penultimate egg, by female only, fed by male both at nest (1·4–1·9 times per hour) and off nest (17 times per hour for one pair); female attentiveness c. 74%; in two studies, mean stints on nest respectively 24 and 27 minutes and mean absences 10 and 12 minutes; duration of incubation period 22–23 days; young brooded by female for at least 14 days, fed by both parents (male often passes food to brooding female), 9–18 feeds per hour, nestling period 24–26 days; juveniles dependent for c. 35 days, remain in natal territory for up to 75 days post-fledging. Can breed in first year. Maximum recorded longevity 16 years; adult annual survival in NE New South Wales 73% (as low as 21% during drought), in CW New South Wales 87% for males and 83% for females; juvenile survival to independence 100%.